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Oregon's 13-Game Winning Streak is Longest Current Streak in the Nation

Salem-News.com

Duck Football has kept fans up on their webbed feet all season long!

Oregon Ducks Football 2012

(EUGENE, Ore.) - This is the game Duck fans have been waiting for. This weekend, Oregon (#1) again takes on Stanford (#14).

Oregon has won all but one of the last 10 meetings against Stanford, falling 51-42 on the road in 2009 - one of only two Pac-12 defeats in 34 conference games under Chip Kelly. The Cardinal lead the all-time series, 44-30-1, while the Ducks hold a 10-9 edge at Autzen.

As part of this weekends game against Stanford, an ultra high-resolution 360-degree photo will be taken during the first and second quarter. Fans will need to make sure they dress to impress, and show up before game time to ensure they're in the photograph!

In five short seasons, Chip Kelly has threatened to redefine the 116-year history of football at the University of Oregon. It started in 2007 in his first year as the Ducks' offensive coordinator and has carried into his fourth season as the University's head coach. Throughout the duration has been the emergence of a program among the nation's elite behind the architect of one of the most prolific offenses in the country that has transformed the standard of college football.

No other coach in school history has guided the football team to three consecutive undisputed conference championships - a feat surpassed only twice in league history. And although nine coaches have accumulated more league titles than the Manchester, N.H. native, only USC's John Robinson succeeded in doing so as a first-year head coach. In the process of accumulating a 44-6 ledger in his three-plus seasons at the helm, the two-time conference coach of the year sandwiched a pair of Rose Bowl appearances around the 2011 BCS National Championship Game.

Accentuating the success was last year's 45-38 Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin. In addition to accumulating a mark of 32-2 in league play, his .880 overall winning percentage is the highest in school history and his .941 percentage in conference play is the best in league annals.

RETURN MEN
The 2012 Oregon Ducks return 52 letterwinners, including 12 players who were starters last season - five on offense and seven on defense. UO also welcomes back every specialist with the exception of punt returner LaMichael James.

FIRST TIMERS
The season opener vs. Arkansas State saw 23 players make their Oregon debut, including 11 redshirt freshmen and two junior college transfers. The seven true freshmen to take the field were WR Bralon Addison, DE Arik Armstead, TE Pharaoh Brown, DE DeForest Buckner, TE T.J. Daniel, RB Byron Marshall and WR Dwayne Stanford. DT Alex Balducci became the eighth true freshman to play this year when he took the field in Week 11 at Cal.

BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPS
With conference crowns in each of the past three seasons, Oregon became just the second team to win three straight outright Pac-12 championships since the conference expanded to ten teams in 1978, joining USC from 2003-05 (‘04 and ‘05 titles since vacated).

RED ZONE RESISTANCE
The Ducks rank second nationally in red zone defense, having allowed opponents only 25 scores in 41 trips inside the red zone this year (60.98%), including only 13 TDs in 31 trips inside the 20-yard line in Pac-12 play. Oregon denied Arizona all six times it penetrated the red zone while posting its first shutout in conference play since 2003. Through the first seven conference games, the UO defense has allowed just 16 red zone scores total (51.61%).

SUPER MARIOTA
Only ten games into his college career, FR QB Marcus Mariota has set the Pac-12 freshman record for touchdown passes and proven to be the perfect fit to lead Oregon's vaunted offense.

After emerging as the starter at the end of an offseason competition with SO QB Bryan Bennett, the 6-4 signal-caller from Honolulu has impressed with his poise, leading the Ducks on nine consecutive touchdown drives to start his career over the first two games.

In Week 3, Mariota became the first freshman QB in Oregon history to pass for 300 yards in a game, completing 21 of 28 attempts for 308 yards and four touchdowns. At Arizona State in Week 8, Mariota became the first Duck since Joey Harrington in the 2000 Holiday Bowl vs. Texas with touchdowns passing, rushing and receiving in the same game.

Included against the Sun Devils was an 86-yard touchdown run - the longest ever by a UO quarterback and fifth-longest rush in school history. Over the past two weeks, the Hawaiian signal-caller has as many touchdowns (10) as incompletions, lighting up then-No. 18 USC for 304 yards and four scores on 20 of 23 passing before tossing six TDs at Cal (27 of 34, 377 yards).

All told, Mariota amassed 819 combined yards of total offense against the Trojans and Bears. Ranking first nationally in passing efficiency (176.96), Mariota is completing nearly 72% of his attempts on the season (180 of 251) while accumulating totals of 2,164 yards and 28 TDs and five interceptions. He is the first freshman to start a season at quarterback for the Ducks since Danny O'Neil in 1991.

BARNER DAY
Saturday, November 3, 2012. A date that will likely live on in record books for as long as Oregon and the Pac-12 Conference sponsor the sport of football. That's the day SR RB Kenjon Barner became the first Oregon back to eclipse 300 rushing yards in a game and ran for a conference record-tying five touchdowns in the Ducks' 62-51 dismantling of USC.

Barner finished with 321 yards, now the fifth-highest total in Pac-12 history, as UO set the school mark for total offense with 730 yards. Barner's personal totals and the Ducks' team yardage and points scored were the most ever by a USC opponent in the Trojans' storied 124-year history.

LIGHTNING STRIKES
Of Oregon's 71 drives resulting in touchdowns this season, 40 have lasted less than two minutes and 21 have taken 60 seconds or less.

FAST STARTS
UO is 10-0 for the second time in three years, and second time in 117 seasons. The school record for most consecutive victories to start a season is 12 by the 2010 squad.

DUCKS IN THE BCS
Despite a No. 1 ranking in both of the human polls that are components of the BCS formula (USA Today, Harris), Oregon is No. 2 in the fifth BCS Standings released Sunday, Nov. 11, behind Kansas State. The Ducks' average computer ranking was fourth. Oregon now has 74 all-time appearances in the BCS Standings, the most of any Pac-12 school and seventh-most of any program in the country. UO has been ranked in every BCS Standings (29) since Chip Kelly became head coach in 2009, including 26 appearances in the top 10.

PICK SIXES
It took until the fourth game of the season, but the Ducks returned not one, but two interceptions for touchdowns in the win over Arizona. SO CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu went 49 yards for a score on his second pick of the game, and SO CB Troy Hill sprinted 29 yards for his end zone visit.

SO S Avery Patterson added his first career TD return (34 yards) the following week against Washington State and scored again from 43 yards in UO's Week 6 game vs. Washington, giving the Ducks four on the year, which is tied for third nationally and equals the school record from 1991. Oregon is tied for second in the FBS in total interceptions with 18 and leads the nation in interception return yards with 425.

ONE-TWO PUNCH
Oregon has scored 76 touchdowns through its first eight games this season and running backs Kenjon Barner (20) and De'Anthony Thomas (12) have combined for 42% of them (32). The two explosive backs are the only Oregon players, dating back through at least the 1965 season, to score touchdowns rushing, receiving, punt returning and kickoff returning in a career.

VS. THE TOP 25
The Ducks are 13-5 against AP top 25 teams in the Chip Kelly era, including a 3-0 mark this year. At home, Kelly's troops are 9-1 vs. the top 25. Oregon is 3-1 in road games against ranked foes and 1-3 at neutral sites under Kelly. UO's only loss to a non-ranked team during Kelly's tenure came at Stanford on Nov. 7, 2009. The Cardinal became ranked the following week as a result.

VS. THE TOP 10
Oregon is 5-3 against the AP top 10 under Chip Kelly, including a 2-1 mark in 2011 with wins at No. 3 Stanford and vs. No. 9 Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Two of the defeats have come in BCS bowl games - vs. No. 8 Ohio State in the 2010 Rose Bowl and No. 1 Auburn in the 2011 BCS Championship - and the other vs. No. 4 LSU in the 2011 Cowboys Classic in Arlington, Texas.

Head coach Chip Kelly made his sideline debut at Autzen Stadium Sept. 12, 2009 (W 38-36 vs. Purdue) after spending the prior two seasons calling plays from a booth high above the field as the team's offensive coordinator. Since Kelly's arrival in 2007, the Ducks are 36-4 at Autzen, averaging 47.4 points per home game.

Fifty-two different players have made tackles for Oregon after ten games this season, with 16 players posting 20 or more stops and nine with 30 or more. Leading the way are senior linebackers Michael Clay and Kiko Alonso, who are both averaging more than 6.5 tackles per game.

Making and Breaking Records

Oregon's all-time leading rusher LaMichael James may be gone, but the Ducks' current roster features four players who have etched their names on a prestigious rushing list. FR QB Marcus Mariota, RB De'Anthony Thomas, JR WR Josh Huff and SR RB Kenjon Barner own four of the longest runs in school history. Thomas' 91-yard touchdown run in the 2012 Rose Bowl Game is the second-longest at Oregon, Mariota ranks fifth with his 86-yard score at ASU - the longest rush in the Pac-12 this season, Huff is tied for sixth with an 85-yard TD vs. Arizona in 2010 and Barner is tenth with his 84-yard score at Colorado last season.

Oregon's Sept. 22 shutout of Arizona (49-0) was the third clean sheet during Chip Kelly's three-plus seasons at the helm. The game marked UO's first conference shutout since a 35-0 win over Stanford on Oct. 25, 2003, although the UO defense held Colorado scoreless in last season's 45-2 victory at Colorado, which scored by recording a safety on an Oregon punt return.

Oregon has won 14 straight road games, which leads the country Alabama is second with nine. The Ducks' last road loss occurred on Nov. 7, 2009, at Stanford (51-42) - the only conference road setback in Chip Kelly's three-plus years as head coach.

Since 2000, Oregon is 34-6 in regular season, out-of-conference contests, earning notable victories against the likes of Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Michigan (x2). During that stretch, the Ducks are 3-1 against the SEC, 5-2 vs. the Big Ten, 1-1 vs. the Big 12, 4-0 against the Mountain West, 12-2 vs. the WAC, 2-0 against Conference USA and 6-0 vs. FCS sides.

COACHING CONTINUITY

An often overlooked facet of Oregon's success has been the continuity of its coaching staff. Fourth-year head coach Chip Kelly, now in his sixth season on staff, is a relative newcomer in Eugene compared to his core group of assistants, who have remained intact over the course of three different head coaches.

Running backs coach Gary Campbell is in his 30th year on the Oregon staff, which is the longest tenure of any Oregon assistant football coach in school history. In addition, offensive line coach and running game coordinator Steve Greatwood enters his 26th season at UO, linebackers coach Don Pellum is in his 20th campaign, while defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti has spent 20 full seasons at Oregon over three separate stints.

Oregon is the only school in the FBS that has seen zero turnover on staff over the past three seasons.

In 2011, Oregon accumulated 69 "explosion plays" of 25 yards or more from scrimmage. Of that number, the Ducks returned eight players in 2012 who accounted for 35 of those "big plays," including 11 by SO RB De'Anthony Thomas and eight by SR RB Kenjon Barner. A staple of Oregon's "blur" offensive attack, Oregon has 37 such plays this season, 14 of which have gone for touchdowns.

QUICK HITS

•Oregon's program-best 13-game winning streak is the longest current streak in the nation.
•The Ducks have scored 42 or more points in 13 straight games, including 11 of 49 or more, marking longest streak of 40-plus points in the BCS era.
•UO has scored 30 or more points in an NCAA-record 23 straight games.
•The Ducks have reached 10 wins in five straight seasons, all with Kelly on the coaching staff.
•FR QB Marcus Mariota's 28 TD passes are the most by a freshman in Pac-12 history, breaking Ortege Jenkins' previous mark of 19 with Arizona in 1997. Mariota's completion percentage of 71.7% is currently higher than former Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford's NCAA freshman record of 69.5%.
•Mariota is the NCAA leader in passing efficiency at 176.96, which would best the Pac-12 record of 175.0 set by ASU's Rudy Carpenter in 2005.
•Since 2010, the Ducks are 34-3, including 32 victories of 10 or more points and 24 of 20-plus.
•Oregon leads the country in interception return yardage with 425, which is more than FBS sides Tulane or Washington State have rushing yards this season.
•Five Ducks are semifinalists for national awards: SR RB Kenjon Barner (Walter Camp, Maxwell, Doak Walker), SO RB De'Anthony Thomas (Maxwell), FR QB Marcus Mariota (Davey O'Brien), SR DE Dion Jordan (Butkus) and SO CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu (Jim Thorpe).